Dispersal of Riella Spores by Waterfowl

Abstract

There are at present no major lake basins in the Panhandle and South Plains region of the state, but rain can and does collect in numerous of the locally depressed areas, forming lakes. At such a lake, 13.5 miles east and 10 miles north of Lubbock, Lubbock Co., approximately 15 gallons of almost pure material were collected on October 11, 1960. The lake, about 2 acres in area, was typically shallow (not more than 3 feet deep) and rapidly filling with silt and other soil being blown into it by the strong, seemingly unceasing autumn winds which race across it from the neighboring agricultural lands. At the margin of the lake where the water line was receding, a green ribbon of R. americana, two feet wide, stretched for nearly three-quarters of a mile! At the present time, a satisfactory explanation for the overwhelming appearance of the hepatic in this one lake is not at hand. Another playa less than one-quarter of a mile away, when investigated, did not show a single gametophyte, nor did 25 other such lakes within a 15-mile radius of the productive playa lake. It might also be noted that Dr. Vernon W. Proctor collected gametophytes with sporophytes at Laguna Huerfana, San Miguel Co., New Mexico, in May of 1959. As far as I know, R. americana has never been reported from that state; the collection (Proctor .0001) is deposited in the herbarium of Texas Technological College.